Book Description
At eight years old, Bettina Aptheker watched her family's politics play out in countless living rooms across the country when her father, historian and U.S. Communist Party leader Herbert Aptheker, testified on television in front of the House on Un-American Activities Committee in 1953. Born into one of the most influential U.S. Communist families whose friends included W. E. B. Du Bois, Paul Robeson, and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Bettina lived her parents' politics witnessing first-hand one of the most dramatic upheavals in American history. She also lived with a terrible secret: incest at the hands of her famous father and a frightening and lonely life lived inside a home wrought with family tensions.
A gripping and beautifully rendered memoir, Intimate Politics is at its core the story of one woman's struggle to still the demons of her personal world while becoming a controversial public figure herself. This is the story of childhood sexual abuse, abortion, sexual violence, activism, and the triumph over one's past. It's about FBI harassment and persecution, Jewish heritage, and lesbian identity. It is, finally, about the courage to speak one's truth despite the consequences and to break the sacred silence of family secrets.
Customer Reviews:
Exceptional.......2007-07-07
Like many others involved in the struggles of the Sixties and thereafter, I was aware of Bettina Aptheker: plaintiff in the famous lawsuit that finally validated the legality of the CPUSA; "red diaper baby" of the famous Herbert Aptheker; and participant in many organizations and campaigns. Also like many others, I had no idea at all about the interior person, the feeling individual who was Bettina Aptheker. The revelations of this book were a bit of a shock to me, though not so much as once they might have been, largely due to the feminist movement's success in raising consciousness about the too-common dysfunction of American families.
What makes this book powerful is the way in which the author weaves her personal experience, the dimension of feeling, in with events of the time and all in the context of relationships both comradely and familial. It seems almost a cliche to say it took great courage for her to live life as she did--shattering the conventions that bound her from sexual awareness and recognition of the crimes committed against her by her famous father. Add to this the tension and very real danger implicit in being a high-profile, public Communist in the US, and we can see her as a very strong person indeed.
This book is a gift to those who may be stunted by any form of "correct" conformism, especially that generated within traditional patriarchal families. It is also of value to those who cared about the efforts against war and racism...and who still care about these issues. Finally, it is a gift to see how she and her beloved partner have distilled the essential values of their lives into a spiritual practice. Thus, Ms. Aptheker completes a familiar circle from personal anguish to struggle for social justice to personal transformation. For those who consciously walk this circle, Intimate Politics will be a deepening and worthwhile book to read.
Bettina's writing is beautiful, educational and poignant........2007-05-12
Her weaving of personal narrative and political context makes this book a must read for feminists of all genres and anyone interested in learning more about the real lives of activists, women and daughters. Making real the complexity of family, relationships and love is a journey for the rest of us too.
A Moving Memoir.......2007-01-08
I was one of Bettina's students when she taught at SJSU thirty years ago. Her classes were always packed. She is an amazing lecturer and scholar. She had a tremendous impact on all of her young students.
Even thirty years later, I am impressed by her will, determination, and her sense of self. I read an excerpt of this book published in a local news magazine, but even before I read the excerpt I knew I would buy her book.
Most individuals at some point in their lives reflect on their childhood and how it formed who they are today. Bettina's book does this and more...she examines why she makes the choices she did in a manner that is honest. She does not go for the "easy out", but then she never did.
Her lessons and her ability to bear witness to her own life can easily be internalized and applied to your own experiences. You don't have to agree with her politics...you just have to recognize her unique humanity and in doing that you will grow yourself.
Public defiance, Private pain .......2006-11-21
There are two distinct and fascinating stories interwoven here.
Ms. Aptheker was part of the inner circle wherever boomers spontaneously manned the barricades for social change. She gives us a meticulous (perhaps too meticulous) first-hand account of the people she knew and the events she lived during the free-speech, civil rights, anti-war, and feminist revolutions. Hence, the word 'politics' in the title.
Then she tells another, much more interesting story. The 'intimate' passages introduce us to a very, very bright, traumatized young girl, one who is eager to please and desperate to fit in. So she steps out bravely -- her courage is astounding (especially her courage to change course in pursuit of integrity)-- but every bold action she takes also exposes her to very real dangers from the powers-that-be. A more sensible person might have withdrawn and conformed, but Ms. Aptheker staggers defiantly on. This is a story about secrets, injuries, shame, stubbornness, self-destruction, self-discovery, healing, and the courage to keep following your star, despite it all.
some important history.......2006-11-11
Bettina reviews a very important period; her growth, both personal and political, make for fascinating reading. I know her, and many of the persons and events in the book, and her "take" on them is very insightful. Events in her family, which took/take up so much of the reviewers time, are treated, I think, with respect and love, and don't detract from what is a wonderful story. Bravo to her.
Book Description
Nancy Snow, a former USIA employee, examines how American propaganda efforts and covert operations are expanding more rapidly today than at any time in U.S. history, as the Bush administration attempts to increase U.S. dominance by curbing dissent and controlling opinion.
Customer Reviews:
A collection of leftist cliches. Thank God I bought this used........2007-08-31
What a piece of work Ms. Snow is. On one one hand, she trumpets Freedom of the Press as part of her "favorite psalm (page 12)," and on the other harkens the deregulation of the media that took place in 2003 (page 15) as some sort of plot to institute mind control. Does it take a mere three pages for liberal doublethink to occur? For Ms. Snow, apparently it does.
Snow attempts to wax eloquently about a post-911 antiwar speech given by Howard Zinn (whom she calls a "rock star" and whom I call "a Marxist who never met a communist dictatorship he didn't like") and then goes on with some drivel about "street-taking protests." All this before she even begins to address propaganda, which is the stated purpose of the book.
As far as I can tell (what with Snow's muddled thinking and admiration for French marxists) China, the former USSR and the United States were all big propaganda blocs prior to our victory over Communism. Now that the USSR is gone (and I'm sure leftists like Snow are still mourning the fall of the Wall) the U.S. and China are the only propagandists on the bloc... and she's not sure about China. Apparently because the mass media actually on occasion repeats the President's statements in a non-critical way and fails to be hypercritical at every turn (which I would argue is no longer the case at the moment) then it must be considered to be the same as a state-run media. the fact that the media is not daily screaming at the top of its lungs that we are involved in an unjust war and we should pull out now, today even, bothers Snow quite a bit. She wants the media to put out HER brand of propaganda!
Disagreeing with the Left, by the way, is interfering with the free speech rights. I get that all the time. Dissent is only good when leftists are the dissenters. She particularly took to task the freedom to call someone a "traitor" who is, in fact, working against the interests on the United States of America.
Aside from this rather poor reasoning Snow's twist on the nature of the 911 attackers is rather sickening, as is any attempted justification of those infamous mass murderers. I no more care about their warped view of the world than I do Mengele's, Himmler's, Stalin's or Idi Amin's.
If you want to see how convoluted post-Cold War and post-911 marxist thinking can be, then knock yourself out. Buy this book.
"Information War" illuminates failure within the system.......2005-02-04
"Information War" illuminates the Bush administration's control of information in the post-9/11 era. Though it has been over three years since that event, the propaganda machine is still in full swing. Snow highlights the attack on people's intelligence via scare tactics, the vilification of anyone who disagrees with Bush policies, and the unqualified folks put in charge of selling America and its policies to the world.
There is also a history of propaganda to show how a pacifist United States was drummed into a warmongering and blood-thirsty country during World War I. In other words, what Bush and his cronies do isn't new, it's part of a grand American tradition. Empires need propaganda to keep free thought at bay. Just look at Nazi Germany. Snow does.
The comparison is frightening. So, what do we do when the ad manager for Uncle Ben's rice tries to sell America to Arab countries? And what do we do when even the mainstream media is pressured to censor itself? We cannot trust the mainstream anymore (if we ever could), especially when it is so conservatively skewed. Nancy Snow provides the clarion call for all with a mind to speak up.
At this time, perhaps more than ever since this is a nuclear age, it is important to have research out there that tells it like it is about the policies of this country. Information control is not a good thing, especially for the so-called leader of the free world. The truth must be hard to take, but considering the non-stop lies of the Bush administration, Snow knows it will be difficult to understand. Give "Information War" a spin with an open mind, and find yourself edified.
Then take some action.
Self-Referential work.......2004-12-23
Ms Snow quotes J Goebbels to the effect that the intellectual content of propaganda need not be high, then continues to demonstrate the same concerning books about propaganda. Her opus
is a sketchy collection of ultra-left agitprop, and is published by the same people who bring us N. Chomsky and Angela Davis. I give
two stars since the book has merit as an object for study. The
editing of the book is amateurish, with misspellings, mispunctuations and contains the very odd word "lookyloo".
A caustic, keen-eyed, and highly recommended "must-read".......2004-08-10
Information War: American Propaganda, Free Speech, And Opinion Control Since 9-11 is a candid and disturbing look at how government and media have used spin control and propaganda to shape popular opinion and guide the nation toward a specific political agenda regardless of dissent since the September 11th attacks. Identifying common propaganda techniques such as card-stacking (selectively quoting facts in order to build a case against an opponent that ignores the whole truth of situations the facts refer to), labelling, bandwagon appeal (building support for an idea by perpetuating the sentiment that "everybody" is in favor of it) and much more, it goes on to spot these techniques used in recent quotes from individuals and spokespeople in the turbulent and often militaristic speeches since the attacks. A caustic, keen-eyed, and highly recommended "must-read" for anyone seeking to understand what is really going on underneath recent American rhetoric.
Uneven work shows the propaganda machine at work.......2004-08-02
A VERY short, extremely partisan and ultimately focusless collection of essays by a veteran of the United States Information Agency, the propaganda arm of the government during the Cold War. The USIA is now defunct, subsumed into other departments during the federal restructuring that saw the birth of the Dept. of Homeland Security. Snow is strongest when she is explaining the role and history of propaganda in international affairs. There is also a moving portrait of Rep. Barbara Lee, the sole Representative to try to hold onto Congressional control of War Powers after the Sept. 11 attacks. Congressional War Powers have been a joke since before I was born, but it's nice to see one person stand up for them. There are many other issues addressed here, but it's like a bag of potato chips; three days later, you don't remember them.
Amazon.com
By Geoffrey R. Stone's estimate, America has lived up to the ideals encapsulated in the First Amendment about 80 percent of the time over the course of its history. Perilous Times's focuses is on the remaining 20 percent, when, during war or civil strife, the better instincts of the public and its leaders have been drowned out by a certain kind of repressive hysteria. Stone, the former dean of law provost at the University of Chicago, identifies six periods of widespread free-speech repression, dating back to the administration of the nation's second president, John Adams, and continuing through the Vietnam era. In between, two of history's greatest presidents, Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt, were involved in constitutionally questionable efforts to suppress dissent.
Stone examines these pivotal episodes with a lawyer's attention to detail and precedence and a writer's focus on character and story structure. From Adams's secretary of state, the "grim-faced and single-minded" Timothy Pickering (who scanned the papers daily looking for seditious language) through John Ashcroft on one side, and the cheeky late-18th-century congressman Matthew Lyon and the Yippies of the 1960s on the other, there are plenty of characters enlivening these pages. Given its publication during the War on Terror, Stone's work feels particularly timely and vital. He devotes only a few pages to the post-9/11 environment, crediting George W. Bush for his refusal to scapegoat Muslims in the immediate aftermath of the attack, but castigating his administration for "opportunistic and excessive" actions centering around the Patriot Act. One wonders if Stone will some day be forced to update Perilous Times with a full chapter on the early 21st century. --Steven Stolder
Book Description
"A must-read for all who treasure the First Amendment."—Alan M. Dershowitz, Boston Globe
Geoffrey Stone's Perilous Times incisively investigates how the First Amendment and other civil liberties have been compromised in America during wartime. Stone delineates the consistent suppression of free speech in six historical periods from the Sedition Act of 1798 to the Vietnam War, and ends with a coda that examines the state of civil liberties in the Bush era. Full of fresh legal and historical insight, Perilous Times magisterially presents a dramatic cast of characters who influenced the course of history over a two-hundred-year period: from the presidents—Adams, Lincoln, Wilson, Roosevelt, and Nixon—to the Supreme Court justices—Taney, Holmes, Brandeis, Black, and Warren—to the resisters—Clement Vallandingham, Emma Goldman, Fred Korematsu, and David Dellinger. Filled with dozens of rare photographs, posters, and historical illustrations, Perilous Times is resonant in its call for a new approach in our response to grave crises.
Hailed as "the most important book of its kind since Zechariah Chafee Jr. first published his heralded Freedom of Speech in 1920," Perilous Times, in the words of Studs Terkel, is "must reading for every citizen interested in something called the First Amendment." Michiko Kakutani of the New York Times wrote that Perilous Times is "an important, indeed necessary book on freedom indispensable…to the discovery and spread of political truth," and Bob Woodward proclaimed Perilous Times to be "a lively, masterful history—and reminder—of the essential role of the First Amendment during the stresses of war." Perilous Times incisively investigates the First Amendment in wartime like no previous book and, according to Elena Kagan, the dean of Harvard Law School, "promises to redefine the national debate on civil liberties and free speech." Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; A New York Times Notable Book, a Philadelphia Inquirer Top 10 Book, a Washington Post Book World Rave, a Los Angeles Times Best Book, and a Chicago Tribune Best Book of 2004. 63 illustrations.
Customer Reviews:
A Masterful History of First Amendment Freedoms, and their supression in time of war.......2007-08-31
~Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime: From the Sedition Act of 1798 to the War on Terrorism~ is an erudite constitutional analysis of First Amendment freedoms to speech and assembly. Throughout American history, free speech and freedom of assembly has been adversely affected by rationalized wartime suppressions in the name of security. Justice Robert Jackson in the mid-20th century declared, "It is easy, by giving way to passion, intolerance, and suspicions of wartime, to reduce our liberties to a shadow, often in answer to exaggerated claims of security." Sadly, overzealous wartime suppression of liberty has plagued the United States throughout much of its history.
Geoffrey R. Stone has put together a well-written account of American constitutional history from the time of the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 to the Patriot Act of 2001. His focus is First Amendment Freedoms. In 1798, ostensibly to guard against the threat of a counterpart "French Revolution" spearheaded by imagined American Jacobins from emerging on American soil, Federalist Party officials marshaled the Alien and Sedition Acts as an effective counterpoise. Its constitutionality was clearly suspect. In reality, it was a shameless partisan attempt to prosecute and suppress critics of the Federalist administration. Virginia and Kentucky responded by protest and state interposition through their Resolutions of 1798, which threatened state nullification of unconstitutional acts.
With much of the major wars throughout American history from the Civil War of the 1860s to the Great War, World War II, Vietnam, and now the Iraq War, shameless attempts emerged to intimidate, stifle and suppress political dissent. Lincoln was the precedent setter for unconstitutionally suspending the writ of habeas corpus, and found a follower to his dubious doctrines in George W. Bush. During the Great War, resident aliens were deprived of the right to due process prior to deportation. The Cold War paranoia was so absurd that the FBI drew up reports citing the classic 1946 Frank Capra movie like It's A Wonderful Life as being evidence of subversive communist propaganda. And thus began the McCarthy era. The 1970s felt the tragedy of the Kent State Massacre in Ohio as National Guard troops shot and killed students protesting the war in Vietnam. In the 1970s, ostensibly the FBI and CIA were reigned in on by Congress for running astray in anti-war activities, but those restrictions came loose following 9/11 when somehow unbridled federal power became more trustworthy.
James Madison judiciously reminds us: "The freemen of America did not wait till usurped power had strengthened itself by exercise, and entangled the question in precedents. They saw all the consequences of the principle, and they avoided the consequences by denying the principle." It was to secure against suppression of freedom of conscience that the First Amendment was framed. It was flatly a negative against Congress to legislate on such matters, hence the interpretative keystone, "Congress shall make no law..."
Speech in Wartime.......2006-11-08
Geoffrey Stone's Perilous Times is a great book for understanding how free speech is affected during times of war and other periods of unrest. Specifically, Stone looks at episodes in American history including the Sedition Act of 1798, the Civil War, World Wars I and II, the Red Scare and the Cold War, the Vietnam-Watergate era, and very briefly on the war against terrorism. This is an excellent book in my opinion and written in an eminently readable and engaging style.
These episodes I just outlined are the main areas where Stone gives us an idea of just how serious freedom of speech was threatened by our leaders in government as well as by our citizens. The Federalist period in the late 1790s saw a vagrant attempt to suppress political dissent expressed by the Republicans, i.e. those who followed Jefferson and Madison. Judge Chase is a key figure in this blatantly political attempt to suppress the opinions of those who politically dissented from the Adams Administration. The Civil War period also saw some controversial excesses, most notably in Lincoln's suspension of the writ of habeas corpus ,as well as the enactment of martial law (in certain circumstances) by military officers, who did on occasion act contrary to Lincoln wishes. But Lincoln, overall, did prove to tolerate those who voiced opposition to his administration.
President Wilson did use the tool, quite popular with many politicians even today, in branding (or at least inferring) those who voice dissent against a war as being disloyal and unpatriotic. The Espionage and Sedition Acts during his administration helped demonstrate the willingness of political leaders and the courts to undermine freedom of speech. In addition to all these events and the others which I will only touch on, Stone traces the evolution of the Court's handling and deciding of cases (during these historical periods in question) that involved or challenged the right of free speech in wartime. In addition to leaders like Adams, Lincoln, Wilson, Roosevelt, Truman, Nixon and so forth and the courses of action they took in these crisis, he examines various justices of the Supreme Court like Holmes and Brandeis to lower court justices like Judge Hand, to noted scholars, lawyers, attorney generals and others who played major roles in cases involving freedom of speech. You see those who bravely did the right thing and those who succumbed to their own prejudices and fears.
This book sheds light on terms used in regards to deciding what represented protected and unprotected speech, such terms as bad tendency, express advocacy, clear and present danger and so forth are all used to shed light on the decision making processes involved in the cases discussed in this book. This serves to illuminate and reveal the level to which the courts had to decide some of the more controversial cases involving freedom of speech. Sometimes the courts reflected the mood of the times and as a result could react in a negative way and sometimes it acted more wisely.
Stone is fairly balanced in his treatment of those who faced these questions, though he does scold some while lauding others. He is sensitive to the times they lived in and how even those serving on the courts (who we all think of as being above the fray) succumb to the same feelings and emotions all people do, especially in times when fear runs rampant. The other periods in question include World War II , which saw the internment of Japanese Americans, the period known as the Red Scare often symbolized by Joseph McCarthy with his over-the-top accusations that helped fan the flames of fear and suspicion that threatened free speech, the Vietnam conflict and the period of government coverups, to the present day war against terrorism.
There are many things I'm leaving out, but the point to this is that in all these important periods in American history, our leaders and institutions have often failed to live up to the ideals of the First Amendment right to free speech, though as Stone discusses, we have come a long way from years such as 1798 and 1918. The times do influence all of us, but we must hope that cooler and wiser heads prevail. A very good book.
book.......2006-11-06
Perilous times is an in depth review of the repression of free speech and assembly and political affiliation from unmasking Lincolns assumed good intentions, the debauchery of the cold war and mccarthy era until the consolodation of views by the media today. dense read. good to smarten up and learn the truth.
Cooler heads did prevail...........2006-06-22
As recent history attests to, some people act irrationally when under conditions of stress, and frequently do not hesitate to deny others basic human rights or even react violently. This kind of behavior does not occur under normal conditions of life, so the trick is get back into mental equilibrium as soon as possible after the shocks have occurred. The time needed to do this varies considerably between individuals, and the individuals who are having trouble calming themselves put undue burdens on those who do not. Therefore there is usually a considerable amount of tension between these two types of people, and this in fact creates more stress on top of what was experienced by the original shocks.
One can see this type of conflict throughout the history of the United States, as the author of this book shows in great detail in this book. Superbly written and full of helpful references and footnotes, the author narrows his discussion to the effects of war, or rumors of war, or invented threats of war, on free speech. When reading the book one is amazed to learn the low degree to which citizens of the United States have placed on the First Amendment, even as early as 1798. The First Amendment was not really thought of as sacrosanct as it is at the present time (outside of the government). This may explain why early on in U.S. history, the populace was quite willing to stifle speech they thought as treasonous or threatening in time of war (or false threats of war). And the stifling of speech was not unique to a particular political party, newspaper, magazine, or pamphlet. Both the left and the right, and in between, took their turns in the suppression of speech at various times in U.S. history.
Everything in the book is fascinating, and those readers who are not aware of the events discussed may be shocked that they actually took place in a country that so prides itself on freedom, both in speech and association. The author though is not content to merely report facts. He analyzes the different attitudes about free speech, both in the minds of the citizens, the press, and in the courts. Legal issues in constitutional law are all discussed in great analytical detail, and the author does not hesitate to express his own opinions on how the different cases should have been decided. A book like this definitely stands out against the hype and yellow journalism that so frequently is labeled as objective analysis these days. It is a welcome part of the political and legal literature, and all readers willing to take the time to its study will walk away with a massive amount of information and insight, and be better equipped to grapple with the issues of free speech as even now they are being debated (and suppressed). Cooler heads did prevail throughout the U.S. constitutional history of free speech, as this book proves without question. One can only hope this will continue to be the case.
compelling, inspiring analysis of free speech during times of war.......2006-03-10
Throughout Geoffrey Stone's engrossing examination of free speech during times of war, two crucial conclusions emerge. Both drive from an explanation articulated by Justice Louis in 1927: "fear breeds repression" and "courage is the secret of liberty." Exquisitely researched, gracefully written and forcefully argued, "Perilous Times" is a compelling exploration of the First Amendment in wartime. Professor Stone, through argument and anecdotal evidence, develops a convincing thesis that the American people, hesitatingly and often with frustrating slowness, have embraced not only the right, but the need, to honor dissent during times of national emergency. This is a hard-earned victory for free speech, one gained only through the raw and open courage of dissidents and the often underestimated and unseen courage of jurists who stood for principle when it mattered most. "Perilous Times" is an unusual historical analysis; its scholarship is meticulous, making it an academician's treasure, and its narrative drive is irresistible, welcoming a large audience to its research and understandings.
Wartime political dissent invariably brings charges of disloyalty and suspicions of motivation. Stone chronologically analyzes six periods of the condition of free speech during times of war; from the nation's first attempts to thwart free speech during the "half war" with France in the late 1790s to its coming of age in respect for the First Amendment in the Vietnam War era, those in power have had an uneven approach to the First Amendment. Within a decade of writing the First Amendment, a repressive congress passed the nefarious Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798, blatant contradictions to the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech. During World War I, the purportedly scholarly Woodrow Wilson unleashed an unprecedented assault on free speech through government-issued propaganda and outright prohibitions of "disloyal" speech. Of all the wartime presidents, Wilson's record receives the greatest criticism. At the onset of the Cold War, President Truman vacillated between steadfast commitment to First Amendment rights to outright capitulation to regressive legislation. His tolerance of "loyalty oaths" helped unleash McCarthyism.
Genuine heroes and heroines emerge in battle for free speech. There's the firebrand Mollie Steimer, whose outspoken opposition to capitalism and World War I earned her a fifteen-year prison sentenced for violating the Espionage and Sedition Acts of 1917. Her crime: distribution leaflets that proclaimed: "there is only one enemy of workers...and that is CAPITALISM." During the Great Depression, the "boy wonder" of academia, Robert Maynard Hutchins, steadfastly championed free speech and thought at the University of Chicago. With extraordinary elegance and quiet courage, he breathed life into the need for more, not less, speech during times of duress. It's not difficult to measure the author's respect for David Dellinger -- pacifist, activist and advocate -- who used the First Amendment to help create movements for social justice and change.
Despite the existence of rogues -- and there are many of them who degraded the First Amendment in times of war -- Professor Stone reserves his greatest disappointment for the American people, who often responded apathetically or with outright encouragement when the government enacted repressive measures. No government of free people can reduce rights to rubble without their tacit approval. "Perilous Times" painstakingly confirms the conclusion that wartime restrictions on free speech reflected contemporary public opinion.
This distressing conclusion does not daunt the author. In a stirring final chapter -- one in which the Bush administration receives harsh reviews -- Stone argues that our government needs some institutional procedures that safeguard civil liberties during times of war. When passions run highest and calls for restricted free speech ring loudest, Professor Stone offers a series of guidelines that each of the three branches of government would be wise to adopt so that basic liberties may not be impaired.
"Perilous Times" is an important, triumphant work. Celebrating often overlooked heroes (like Judge Learned Hand, probably the greatest twentieth century jurist never to sit on the Supreme Court) and quixotic characters (for instance, Congressman Matthew "Spitting" Lyon, jailed for dissent in the 1790s), this lucidly written analysis of free speech should achieve its desired end. Professor Geoffrey Stone summons us to have the courage to stand for the principles of the First Amendment when the fear-laced winds of repression blow hardest.
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Academic Freedom at the Dawn of a New Century: How Terrorism, Governments, and Culture Wars Impact Free Speech
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ASIN: 0804754446
Release Date: 2006-08-09 |
Book Description
This volume explores the state of academic freedom in the United States and abroad. What impact have the attacks of September 11th and the ensuing war on terrorism had on free speech, access to information, government funding of the sciences, and other cornerstones of freedom of inquiry at American universities? How has the renewed emphasis on patriotism affected the “culture wars” that aroused so much controversy on American campuses? And how does academic freedom in the United States compare to that of other nations?
To engage these crucial questions, the editors have assembled some of the nation's leading experts on academic freedom, from a broad range of disciplines including law, political science, and the history of science.
Book Description
Stop the Left from Policing Your Mind
Our freedom to speak our minds is under attack. Like the Thought Police of George Orwell's 1984, powerful special interest groups on the Left are mounting a withering assault on our rights in the name of "social equality." Liberty has been turned on its ear as the rights of the few restrict the freedom of everyone. In The New Thought Police, author Tammy Bruce, a self-described lesbian feminist activist, cuts through the deluge of politically correct speech and thought codes to expose the dangerous rise of Left-wing McCarthyism. Provocative and persuasive, this book is a clarion call to anyone interested in preserving liberty.
Customer Reviews:
The truth about Ms. Bruce.......2007-02-13
First, in reference to two earlier critics, Michelle Malkin was born in Philidelphia to parents on a work visa and would have little reason to "sneak in" from Mexico. Secondly, no, she doesn't head a chapter of the communist party. You are letting your dumb get in the way of objectivism. That's mighty liberal of you.
Thirdly, I wish liberal types would pay more attention to the actual content of a message rather than how pretty it is. If Ms. Bruce's sentence structure is not as advanced as yours, does that detract from the truthfulness of the message? Fortunately, most people are not as the trout, only interested in the shiny things. The rest are liberals, I guess.
I used to listen to Tammy. Loved it. Still would listen if my area got it. She is a hard working and passionate person. In a world of knee jerk conservative types, she offers something new, something the left uses and we desparately need: The ability to put down our colorful plume and egos and share with one another. Libs can get people together by the masses in hours. So they hire a few bums. As one who has been in charge of conservative political protests, getting cconservatives together is like herding cats. But Bruce is different. She is very open with her own and others intellectual happenings. She and Charles Johnson [...]. Brilliant!
This book is a good read. Read it.
Jake Freeman
THE EROSION OF INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY.......2006-04-14
Tammy Bruce writes with an authenticity that comes from her work within the gay-feminist-liberal community. Her opinions forged from direct experience cannot be easily dismissed. She points out a clear distinction between the classical liberal and the liberal of today. The negative reviews you read here are written by those who do not want you to find out the truth about how the far left radicals have taken over the Democratic Party. They are enormously fearful that you will find out their agenda is to destroy individual liberty and impose their brand of group thought on us all.
I previously read Tammy's later books, The Death of Right and Wrong and The New American Revolution. These impressive books made me want to read her first book and I found it to be excellent as well. Ms. Bruce is one of the best writers I've read. She writes in an easy style using powerful examples and fascinating experiences.
This book will shake you with a dreaded sense of where this country is headed if we don't wake up and actively fight for the freedom that is our heritage. Slowly but steadily our freedoms are being eroded by liberals attaching labels to anyone with whom they disagree. Their tactics are oppressive, punitive, and discriminatory. These so called champions of tolerance have become anything but tolerant. They want to silence anyone who does not conform to what they deem "right thinking".
Students on college campuses had better parrot the liberal professors or their grades will suffer. Universities and the mainstream media might as well hang out a sign saying "CONSERVATIVES NEED NOT APPLY!" You'd be ostracized by the feminists if you suggested that abortion should be restricted. You are a homophobe if you think marriage should be strictly between a man and a woman. You are a racist if you think college admission should be based on qualifications only and not on race. Attack people with labels and shut them up. If that doesn't work use other tactics-- lawsuits, threats of boycotts, even bomb threats.
It's all about what kind of country we want. It is clear that the modern day liberal wants a different country. They don't want equal opportunity; they want preferential treatment for some groups. They certainly don't want capitalism; they want socialism. They don't want to protect American sovereignty; they want world government. We Americans who want to preserve individual freedom had better get involved and fight for it.
Changes your world view.......2006-03-28
The New Thought Police is a well thought out book by Tammy Bruce, former chairwomen of the LA chapter of NOW who is pro-gun, pro-choice, and lesbian. I read her more recent book The Death of Right and Wrong on a recommendation from Amazon.com and was at first taken aback by the author's own description of herself. This was not someone I expected to have much to agree with. Both in that book and The Thought Police I was surprised again and again at her matter of fact discussions of how liberalism is changing how we think about ourselves, our children and our country. One of the things I value most about her writings is that she is rarely vitriolic in her anger. Reading Michael Savage is also educational, but his insults and rage makes my stomach turn. Bruce turns much of her anger toward the organization of NOW, but considering how she has been burned by them, her anger is righteous. I find myself respecting Bruce and nodding my head in agreement with her often. More great reads in this style are Spin Sisters by Myrna Blyth and Bias by Bernard Goldberg. These books will change how you view the news.
Written for 7th-graders, perhaps--feminazi 7th-graders........2006-02-21
The level of the writing is rather low--perhaps seventh grade--the sentence structure is rather dull and the writing itself is lifeless. There is little depth of thought expressed and I have yet to come across a piece of information that is not common knowledge.
That said, I respect anyone in America today who will quote that plagiarizing Communist known as Martin Luther King Jr., revealing his anti-America biases in all of their misspelled glory. But it doesn't make up for the frequent reminders that Ms. Bruce is gay, as if we could forget from when we read it in the previous paragraph.
Additionally, Ms. Bruce performs a disservice, or is simply dishonest, in claiming that feminism, blackism and whateverelseism are only concerned with being equal to, and not better than, other groups. Rubbish! A Freudian perspective is not about psychology in general, its basis is in the belief that Freud is superior to other points of view. A Communist nation does not believe all forms of governance and economics are equal; it believes supremely in the good of Communism. Therefore, a Feminist believes females are better than everyone else, too. Although I am a female, I certainly don't believe I am better than my sons, my husband, or any other man. Ms. Bruce's comment about a "feminist utopia" certainly is revolting.
Expected more..........2006-02-15
Tammy Bruce seems confused. She seems to closey resemble that which she criticizes in her book. Bruce defends the moralist Laura Schlessinger, but is herself openly lesbian. In fact, the defense of Schlessinger comes up again and again and again. Enough already!!! Those two are certainly strange bedfellows, in the metaphorical sense anyway. Bruce takes on the left, but was herself head of a NOW chapter for years. Was she really surprised to learn NOW was dominated by democrats?? She doesn't like Howard Stern, and would really like his show off the E! channel, but realized that to demand the show's removal (as a NOW leader) would be politically correct, so she demands (politically correct) counter-propaganda be shown by E! instead. Why doesn't she just not watch the show?? I suspect she'd like the look of herself in a thought police uniform. The level of inner conflict expressed here is an experience like reading "Invasion" by Michelle Malkin, then discovering that Malkin actually snuck in from Mexico, and still heads a local chapter of the communist party on weekends. So many times, I just went "Huh?" Perhaps that's the hook of this book. Bruce says a lot of things that need to be said, but I expected more.
Customer Reviews:
Hentoff: The Lone Voice of Reason.......2007-06-14
Nat Hentoff is one of the few writers who has not been selective in his defense of the First Amendment--the only absolute, no-exceptions law in the United States. As a result, he has been castigated by both the Left and the Right, depending on whose right to free speech is endangered.
He performs an invaluable public service when he exposes the inherent hypocrisy of groups claiming that their First Amendement rights are being disrespected. Evangelical Christians wring their hands ad nauseam and wail about how the ACLU would make it illegal for someone to sit under a tree riding the Bible. Even worse than the sheer idiocy of this prediction is the fact that the same evangelical Christian would happily take away my right to sit under the adjacent tree reading HUSTLER. Although it revolts me, I know that someone else can ride the city bus reading MEIN KAMPF and be 100% within their rights.
I encourage anyone who wants to keep the future of free expression alive--either as a consumer or as a creator, or both--to read FREE SPEECH FOR ME, BUT NOT FOR THEE. Hentoff spoke of his own brushes with it when, during his days as a VILLAGE VOICE commentator, he was censored
Both insightful and accessible.......2007-05-19
This is one of the most important books of our time. Hentoff is a passionate believer in free speech who recognizes that if speech is truly to be free, he must protect the expression even of ideas he abhors. He catalogs with equal regret the efforts of both the right and the left to censor speech they don't like. While being sympathetic to those who object to allowing bigots, racists, pornographers, atheists, and others of many stripes the right to lay out ideas that one group or another finds repugnant, he makes both an intellectual and an emotional case for allowing everyone to have their say, no matter how much this may offend some. He points out that suppressing speech doesn't get rid of the underlying thought, but merely drives it underground and gives it the benefit of martyrdom. His corrective to bad speech is good speech: those who believe in their ideas should not try to censor other views, but should openly confront and refute them with opposing ideas.
His prescription can be hard to accept at times, but the case he makes is persuasive that in the end, liberty of speech is the best guarantee of a free society and of the ability for that society to work through the all viewpoints to reach agreement on which opinions are social desirable and which are not.
Democracy and freedom are hard masters, but they are worth it.
THOUGHT PROVOKING AND WONDERFUL.......2007-01-20
I first read this in college in the mid-1990's when a professor assigned it. It made me think and question about what it means when we say we protect freedom of speech. To truly protect that right, that means you have to allow speech even when you don't like or disagree with what is being said. Fast forward to the last 4 years. Americans of all people are responding to speech they don't like with death threats -- makes me wonder why we are so scared of others having a difference of opinion.
Interesting collection of anecdotes.......2005-01-30
Hentoff, one of the foremost free speech advocates, presents stories, many involving his own experiences, of individual examples of censorship initiatives from both the 'left' and 'right'. He doesn't really present a comprehensive philosophical case, but rather provides concrete examples of the necessity for rigorous protection of free speech.
Great book--very objective.......2001-05-21
Hentoff deals with the subject of free speech in the most objective manner I've seen. As a writer for the Village Voice, he could not be accused of being a right-winger, so criticism of the hypocrisy of the left is very credible. I've always thought it ironic that the left portrays itself as having a lock on being open-minded, yet it is all too happy to restrict speech that presents a contrary point of view.
Hentoff gives many examples, including some of his own, where both sides of the political spectrum attempt to censor the speech of the other. He discusses everything from efforts on college campuses to prevent non politically correct subjects from being discussed to censorship he faced while writing his columns.
Great book for people to read on both sides of the political spectrum. Perhaps it could move more people on both sides to actually listen to opposing points of view rather than trying to prevent the discussion. We have to understand that the 1st Amendment was not designed to protect speech we agree with--their would be no need for such protection. Being offended is really not a constitutional reason to preclude speech (in my view as well as Hentoff's).
Book Description
The first comprehensive history of the evolution of Free Speech in America for a general readership, from a respected historian and free speech activist.
After Upton Sinclair, famed author of The Jungle, was arrested for reading the First Amendment on Liberty Hill in 1923, The Nation commented: "When we contemplate the antics of the chief of police of Los Angeles, we are deterred from characterizing him as an ass only through fear that such a comparison would lay us open to damages from every self-respecting donkey." In this lively history of our most fundamental and perhaps most vulnerable right, Chris Finan traces the lifeline of free speech from the War on Terror back to the turn of the last century.
During the YMCA's 1892 Suppression of Vice campaign, muttonchopped moralist Anthony Comstock railed against writing by that "Irish smut dealer" George Bernard Shaw. The burgeoning film industry of the early 1900s cannibalized its own reels as state censors dictated how many seconds on-screen kisses could last and refused to allow any references to birth, including a scene of a woman knitting baby clothes. In the midst of the country's first Red Scare, the government rounded up thousands of Russian Americans for deportation during the Palmer raids. Decades later, a second Red Scare gripped the country as Senator Joseph McCarthy spearheaded a witch-hunt for "egg-sucking liberals" who defended "Communists and queers."
Finan's dramatic review of such touchstones as the Scopes trial and Edward R. Murrow's challenge to Joseph McCarthy are revelatory; many of his narratives are entirely fresh and have as much relevance to our post-PATRIOT Act world as his final chapter on the twenty-first century. The story of the fight for free speech, in times of war and peace-when writers, publishers, booksellers, and librarians are often on the front lines-is essential reading.
Customer Reviews:
Good narrative of challenges to free speech.......2007-10-08
This is a wide-ranging and fairly comprehensive book about challenges to free speech in the United States. It is primarily a narrative and tries to make all the players come alive, and has only a little bit of analysis. It covers not only government attempts to limit speech but also boycotts and picketing of bookstores (usually ineffective) and pressure on advertisers to withdraw sponsorship of ill-regarded programs (usually effective).
It omits a few areas that have been important. There is a mention of Banned Books Week but no discussion of book banning in schools and libraries. The 1989 Supreme Court decision in Texas v. Johnson that ruled that flag burning is protected political symbolic speech is alluded to (but not named) in a discussion of Justice Anthony Kennedy.
The book's biggest weakness is that it doesn't look at all into the reasoning used in the Supreme Court cases. This justices' written opinions are usually much more important in determining the course of the law than is the way the decision went. Most of the important free speech issues have gone before the Supreme Court.
My favorite quote in the book is from Judge Murray I. Gurfein, regarding the New York Time's publication of the Pentagon Papers: "A cantankerous press, an obstinate press, a ubiquitous press must be suffered by those in authority in order to preserve the even greater values of freedom of expression and the right of the people to know." Amen.
Book Description
Emma Goldman: A Documentary History of the American Years redefines the historical memory of Emma Goldman and illuminates a forgotten yet influential facet in the history of American and European radicalism. This definitive multivolume work, which differs significantly from Goldman's autobiography, presents original texts--a significant group of which are published or translated into English for the first time--anchored by rigorous contextual annotations. The distillation of years of scholarly research, these volumes include personal correspondence, newspaper articles, government surveillance reports from America and Europe, dramatic court transcripts, lecture notes, and previously unpublished documents retrieved from obscurity. Biographical, newspaper, and organizational appendices are complemented by in-depth chronologies that underscore the complexity of Goldman's political and social milieu.
Making Speech Free, 1902-1909, the second volume in the series, chronicles Goldman's pivotal role in the early battle for free expression. It highlights the relationship between the development of the right of free speech and turn-of-the-century anarchist ideas. The enactment of anti-anarchist laws and the organization of groups in protest occupy center stage among the primary documents. Within this frame, the volume presents Goldman's evolving attitudes toward violence in both its European and American contexts, the emergent revolution in Russia, and the beginnings of the Modern School education movement in America, the social significance of European modern drama, and the right of labor to organize against unfair working conditions in the United States. The volume features the early evolution of Goldman's magazine, Mother Earth, launched in 1906, which promoted a blending of modern literary and cultural ideas into her radical and social political agenda and became a platform for the articulation of her feminist critique, an expression of her international reach, and a marker of her desire to spread anarchist ideas outside the immigrant left. Making Speech Free also tracks Goldman's emergence as a writer and orator whose scathing critique of hypocrisy in all realms of life and politics would eventually capture the attention and imagination of America.
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- Learning From History, Protecting Our Free Speech Heritage
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Free Speech, "The People's Darling Privilege": Struggles for Freedom of Expression in American History (Constitutional Conflicts)
Michael Kent Curtis
Manufacturer: Duke University Press
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The Establishment Clause: Religion and the First Amendment
ASIN: 0822325292 |
Book Description
Modern ideas about the protection of free speech in the United States did not originate in twentieth-century Supreme Court cases, as many have thought. Free Speech, “The People’s Darling Privilege” refutes this misconception by examining popular struggles for free speech that stretch back through American history. Michael Kent Curtis focuses on struggles in which ordinary and extraordinary people, men and women, black and white, demanded and fought for freedom of speech during the period from 1791—when the Bill of Rights and its First Amendment bound only the federal government to protect free expression—to 1868, when the Fourteenth Amendment sought to extend this mandate to the states. A review chapter is also included to bring the story up to date.
Curtis analyzes three crucial political struggles: the controversy that surrounded the 1798 Sedition Act, which raised the question of whether criticism of elected officials would be protected speech; the battle against slavery, which raised the question of whether Americans would be free to criticize a great moral, social, and political evil; and the controversy over anti-war speech during the Civil War. Many speech issues raised by these controversies were ultimately decided outside the judicial arena—in Congress, in state legislatures, and, perhaps most importantly, in public discussion and debate. Curtis maintains that modern proposals for changing free speech doctrine can usefully be examined in the light of this often ignored history. This broader history shows the crucial effect that politicians, activists, ordinary citizens—and later the courts—have had on the American understanding of free speech.
Filling a gap in legal history, this enlightening, richly researched historical investigation will be valuable for students and scholars of law, U.S. history, and political science, as well as for general readers interested in civil liberties and free speech.
Customer Reviews:
Learning From History, Protecting Our Free Speech Heritage.......2002-09-04
"The People's Darling Privilege" examines struggles for free speech in American history. Professor Curtis persuasively argues that the struggles were political, not judicial: early American controversies over free speech -- the 1798 Sedition Act, the battle over slavery, and antiwar speech during the Civil War -- were resolved largely outside the judicial sphere, in Congress, in state legislatures, in the public press, and, especially, in the hearts and minds of "the people." The legacy of these struggles - a constitutional commitment to a robust free speech system - only found judicial validation in the wake of the World Wars, in the Warren Court era, and, to a certain extent, in the Rehnquist Court. This history not only informs our twentieth century understanding of free speech, but also, and most importantly, our twenty-first century struggles to protect it. Indeed, the struggle du jour - the freedom of expression versus the war on terror -- underscores the importance and timeliness of Curtis' scholarship. As Curtis' history demonstrates, in times of intense social conflict and civil unrest, courts prove to be weak reeds in protecting civil liberties; thus, in today's political climate, "the people" must remain vigilant in protecting against unwarranted intrusions upon their "darling privilege."
Book Description
This book deals with the decline of respect for free speech, academic freedom, and civil liberty that has swept higher education in America over the last decade and a half and with what needs to be done to reverse this trend. Drawing on personal experience as well as research, Downs analyzes the origins and development of the problem, and shows how political organization of students and faculty can lead to constructive change. He presents four case studies that illustrate this thesis.
Customer Reviews:
a balanced, reasoned account by a liberal.......2006-05-14
The main purpose and content of this book is to present four case studies. In the first two, those of U. Penn and U. Wisconsin, thanks to efforts made by faculty and students in the last few years, gains were made in restoring some degree of free speech and other Bill-of-Rights protections to faculty and students. In the other two, Columbia and Berkeley, no such efforts have been made and the status quo continues. The author states that most or all other campuses resemble the latter two.
Also, in introductory chapters, the author gives a precis of what has happened to colleges and universities since 1987:
(1) the redefinition of the mission of the university from the search for truth and knowledge to the transforming of individuals into sensitive members of the community from whom all racism, sexism and homophobia has been washed away.
(2) the redefinition of speech as action. One doesn't state an opinion, one offends another person or harasses another person. So, codes against harassment and creating a hostile environment include saying anything of which the censors disapprove.
(3) "critical race theory", the view that racism is endemic to liberal society and that such notions as individual, reason, merit, etc. are racist notions and should be suppressed.
The author, like many others, states that the motive for the de facto repeal of the Bill of Rights at universities was that the welfare of some groups was more important. He goes on to point out that the consequences have been anything but beneficial, even to those groups. Feelings of antagonism have increased. An increasing infantilization or dependency of the favored groups has occurred. etc.
The author cites a number of other interesting recent books, including McWhorter, Losing the Race; Wood, Diversity; Kuran, Private Truths, Public Lies; Farber and Sherry, Beyond All Reason; and Kors and Silvergate, The Shadow University. Kors and Silvergate have continued to be active in the area and have established an organization called Foundation for Individual Freedom in Education (FIRE) with a website, www.thefire.org, where complaints can be registered. The site makes interesting if harrowing reading. There is also a database in which you can look up any college and get FIRE's rating of the degree of freedom on that campus.
One strength of the book is its narrow focus. That means, however, that other books need also to be consulted. The book is especially weak on the causes or development of the present situtation. The author states that he became a faculty member in the mid-1980s as a result of having written an anti-Nazi book (PhDs looking for faculty positions, take note!). By that time, the situation had already developed. For an eyewitness account in narrative form of the groups and motives that led to the present situation, see The Rape of Alma Mater. For a detailed study of the situation at the present time, one which includes other parts of society that are affected by what is happening in academia, read While America Sleeps: How ... and Indoctrination Are Destroying America From Within -- While America Sleeps: How Islam, Immigration and Indoctrination Are Destroying America From Within.
The present book is unique in sounding a hopeful note and in providing others with the two cases of (limited) success. It is to be hoped that other academics and students will read this book and learn how to take back their own universities.
What happened to free speech on American campuses?.......2005-08-23
One would think that American universities would be centers of free speech, where all sorts of views could be stated freely. Well, that hasn't been entirely the case recently. And this book examines some of the problems that have arisen.
I would have thought that the fundamental issues would be simple. Most speech is inoffensive. Some speech is actually illegal (sedition, incitement, or whatever). The line between illegal speech and legal speech may be a subject of debate, but that line exists somewhere. And some speech is in between: it is offensive but not illegal. And those who are offended have plenty of options: they can shun such people, or tell others about their bad manners, and so forth.
As this book points out, once one has rules against offensive speech, not just against intimidation (or worse), that leads to thought control. And there are some examples of what has been happening along these lines.
One spectacular example is the 1993 "water buffalo" case at the University of Pennsylvania. A Penn freshman got in trouble for using the term "water buffalo" in response to students who were making too much noise at midnight outside his dormitory. Although a simple apology from him would have been the most reasonable resolution, Penn made this into a major case. So did much of the nation! The result was not only a victory for the accused student, but the removal of the "speech codes" at Penn. It seems that the speech codes were doomed by the idiotic claims of Penn officials, including the Penn President, that they were merely following due process in the water buffalo case.
Downs describes how speech codes were removed at the University of Wisconsin as well. And there is some fascinating material about the University of California, Berkeley. The campus newspaper ran an ad that offended some people, and then compounded the problem by apologizing for it (offending even more folks). And then, there was a speech by well-known conservative David Horowitz. An assistant chancellor warned Horowitz that he might be shouted down "because the right of free expression also" belonged to those that disagreed with him! I find it incredible that such censorship could be called "free expression." Others were similarly censored just for having "politically incorrect" views. A striking example was former Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who was prevented from speaking to 2000 waiting ticket holders by a couple of hundred foes of free speech. One of these people, when challenged about what she had done replied that she didn't "believe in free speech for war criminals." By the way, given Netanyahu's record, I find such a charge against him ludicrous. And I wonder if genuine criminals, such as Yasir Arafat, would have been shouted down at Berkeley.
One more topic in the book is the sexual misconduct policy at Columbia University. That's another university that has a problem with taking political correctness too seriously. But in this case, the issue was simply that people accused of sexual misconduct were denied due process, including the right to hear the testimony against them or to cross-examine. That policy eventually had to be scrapped. Still, the incident serves to show the moral blindness of some of those who create policies on campus.
I found this book very interesting and I strongly recommend it.
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